


Ambience

by DetectiveRoboRyan



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Just gals being pals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 03:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4084693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveRoboRyan/pseuds/DetectiveRoboRyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The word "friend" is a good word. An innocent word, a word that most wouldn't usually associate with pain-- and then, that isn't the definition of the word, not really. But sometimes it just isn't the thing you most want to hear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ambience

_Friend._  
  
It was an innocent word, a happy word. Friends, the true definition anyway, meant companionship and happiness and fun. Having a new friend was a good thing, and no one was denying it. To be known as someone’s friend, especially if you’ve admired them for quite some time, was really an accomplishment— an honor, even.   
  
But it wasn’t… _quite_ the word Say’ri had wanted to hear.  
  
Equals, from that day hence, it had been decided, and she had said do with a contented smile on her face. And the other girl had nodded with a grin, and thanked her, presumably for the agreement.  
  
She should’ve said no. No, she didn’t want to be friends. She didn’t want to have to say, _“No, we’re just classmates,”_ every time somebody approached their favorite café table and asked about the schedule of the girl sitting next to her, and then asked if they were dating by the way Say’ri was looking at her— because everyone wanted to know, everyone wanted to be the one to take her out for ice cream or escort her to a dance. She wanted to give them a look and put her arm around the other girl, who would rest her head on her shoulder and smile, and say, _“Actually, we already have plans… so sorry.”_ And then they’d kiss, just a little, and the asker would sigh and walk away.  
  
Say’ri let out a ragged sigh, slouching against the chain-link fence on the school roof. She was only a transfer student that’d come in halfway through the second semester, it wasn’t like she’d be able to really _meet_ anybody, not get enough time to know them that they’d really keep in touch over the summer. And there were no guarantees whoever she met would even return for the next year.  
  
Groaning moodily, she kicked at the post of the fence, and only suceeded in making the fence wobble slightly and making her toe ache. Why didn’t she ever have the courage to just _say_ anything? She could come in second in state kendo tournaments, scale a ten-foot fence to retrieve a sweater because someone said she couldn’t, and willingly leave home for several months to chase a dream— and she couldn’t just _talk_ to someone.  
  
She stood up a bit, looking out at the city. The early evening sunlight was harsh, it being the beginning of June, but not so harsh she couldn’t see. Some kind of insects were making noise in the bushes, some kind of birds, as well. The entirety of nature trying to get laid, providing the soundtrack for Say’ri’s current anguish.  
  
“I don’t want to be your friend, Tiki, I want to be your _girl_ friend,” Say’ri muttered to herself, starting to idly pace on the concrete rooftop. “I want to stand by you because I love you… I love you because I want to stand by you… Wait, that doesn’t make sense.”  
  
She groaned, sitting down on the rough concrete. Her well-worn gym shoes had been set aside, socks set neatly within. Her feet on the hot pavement helped ground her, sort of. It also kind of hurt, but Say’ri considered herself strong enough to take it. Why did talking have to be so difficult?  
  
She suddenly felt something small nudge her hand, darting quickly around it and over it. Say’ri immediately recognized it as a lizard, and looked down, her eyebrows furrowing. A little green iguana, a common variety, was on the back of her hand, possibly attracted by the bright beads on her bracelet. But the iguana itself had a little red bow tied around its neck, tied by delicate fingers that had a talent with reptiles.  
  
“Cornelius,” she mumbled, recognizing the gecko itself as well. “What are you doing here?” The reptile, predictably, did not respond.  
  
Say’ri heard jogging footsteps run up the stairs to the roof, and then come to a stop, but she didn’t look at the person making the noise, or the owner of the voice that came next. “Cornelius, what are you doing up… oh, Say’ri!”  
  
She already knew who it was. “Hello, Tiki,” she said, giving a half-smile. “Lovely evening for… reptile herding.” That was lame and Say’ri wanted to cringe.   
  
Tiki chuckled and sat down next to her, picking up Cornelius with her gentle fingers and putting him back in his box. She looked beautiful, Say’ri noticed, but then, she always did. The pale blond roots of her hair were showing through the beautiful green Tiki always dyed it, and though it was messy and her ponytail was half-undone, Say’ri wanted nothing more than to tell her how beautiful it was— nothing more than to run her hands through it and brush the flyaway strands off the face of the girl they belonged to.  
  
But that wasn’t something people who were friends did.  
  
“I thought today would be a good day to bring Cornelius up here for some sun,” she said, leaning back on her arms with her legs outstretched on the roof. “You know how the school roof always gets a good amount during late spring.”  
  
“Mm-hmm,” Say’ri hummed an agreement. “It seems he did not want to stay in the box, though.”  
  
Tiki chuckled. “He never does! And he likes you, so it’s only natural he’d come to you first. It’s that bracelet you wear, probably. The bright colors are attractive.”  
  
“I had thought that was for bugs, but you pay more attention to biology than I do,” Say’ri admitted. The conversation turned to silence— not necessarily an awkward silence, but not quite a comfortable one either.  
  
“About what I said earlier, I…” Say’ri blurted, and then trailed off. “Never mind.”  
  
“No, no, what was it?” Tiki insisted, touching her arm gently. Say’ri’s ears turned pink at that, but then, they always did. Tiki had a way with her hands, in that every touch made Say’ri flush and stutter something about forgetting something in her locker, which always made Tiki laugh.  
  
“I… about being friends,” she managed. “I was thinking… that is, if you are alright with it… that I would… I had something… some thoughts on that.”  
  
“Really?” Tiki laughed, petting Cornelius the iguana gently and letting him crawl up her arm. “So spit it out! What did you want to say?”  
  
“I… it is complicated to say,” Say’ri mumbled. “A-and please do not take this the wrong way, I just… words are difficult, sometimes. Especially now.”  
  
“There’s no need to be nervous, you know,” Tiki assured her, making Say’ri blink in mild surprise. “I did tell you I wanted you to tell me everything, and I meant what I said. You don’t have to hold everything in around me, I promise.”  
  
“Well… please do not misinterpret, is what I am saying,” Say’ri tried again. “I… Tiki, I…”  
  
“What is it?” Tiki urged gently. “Say’ri?”  
  
“I… I do not think I want to be friends with you,” she blurted, and immediately wished she could stuff the entirety of the past fifteen minutes back from whence they’d come.  
  
The look on Tiki’s face made Say’ri wish she was an iguana. They didn’t have to deal with this. “What? Say’ri, I…”  
  
“Not in the bad way!” Say’ri added hurriedly. “That is to say, I do want to be friends with you, but not… not _friends_ friends. It is not that I dislike you!”  
  
“So you do like me, and you do want to be friends,” Tiki tried to figure out.  
  
“But not in that way,” Say’ri tried to explain, flustered. “Tiki, I… I like you, and… I do not think the term ‘friends’ is sufficient for how I feel towards you. I want to hold your hand, and… maybe kiss you, and such, if you are okay with that…” Her voice trailed into a mumble by the end of her sentence, her face burning and her hands clenched.  
  
Tiki’s cheeks were the color of cherries. “You… you like me? But not as a friend?”  
  
“I love you, is what I am trying to say,” Say’ri sighed, burying her face in her hands. “You said you wanted to be my friend, and I… I want to be your /girl/friend, specifically. Romantic friend. I-if that is alright.”  
  
It took a minute for Tiki to respond, a minute that Say’ri could feel with her heartbeat pounding in her ears. But when she did respond, it was to laugh, and lean over to hug Say’ri tightly, which gave Say’ri another startle.  
  
“Oh, Say’ri!” Tiki said happily. “Why didn’t you just _say_ so? Of course it’s alright with me!”  
  
“You… you mean it? You would allow it?” Say’ri stammered, a goofy, very much inelegant grin spreading across her face.  
  
“Of course I’d allow it,” Tiki purred, nuzzling Say’ri’s neck affectionately. “I’d accept it wholeheartedly, for you.”  
  
Say’ri buried her face in her hands, then started laughing, harder than she’d intended. “I was so nervous!” she confessed. “I thought you would… you would say no, or not want to see me again!”  
  
“What? Why would I?” Tiki laughed. “I would never reject you, Say’ri, you know that!”  
  
“Still,” Say’ri admitted, regaining her composure, but not to a stiff level. “You make me so… flustered, so tongue-tied. I feel like a fool around you, and you are always so… composed. But you are relaxed, too, enough people will approach you. No one approaches me unless it is for help in martial arts, or something of the sort.”  
  
“Or skin diving,” Tiki added, making Say’ri flush an entirely new shade of beetroot red.   
  
“Please, do not bring that up,” Say’ri pleaded. “It was once!”  
  
Tiki chuckled, pushing Say’ri’s hair behind her ear and kissing her cheek gently. “I won’t tell a soul, don’t worry.”  
  
Say’ri sighed happily, feeling like she could melt with Tiki’s gentle touches. “Tiki, may I say something?”  
  
“Anything,” Tiki replied, leaning her head on Say’ri’s shoulder, bare after she’d taken off her sweatshirt.  
  
Say’ri turned her head, kissing Tiki’s gently and breathing in the smell of reptiles and mint conditioner. “I love you,” she murmured quietly, and then welcomed the silence that followed— for that one was a silence of love and comfort.

**Author's Note:**

> If you got a cavity from reading this, don't put the dentist bill on my tab. I am a broke high school student. However, if you animated the scene in your head in a style straight out of high school shoujo stories, my work here is done. (Seriously though, don't put it on my tab.)


End file.
